Catch Me If You Can
by noelswonderland
Summary: The chase began when they met and it won't end until Shizuo dies. This is the cycle they live with and when Shizuo's shoes go missing, he figures this is just another part of their cycle. Raijin Days. Shizuo x Izaya / Shizaya


**Catch Me If You Can (One-shot)**

There are letters of challenge stuffed to the brim, filling every crevice of his locker. Hastily, he rummages through them, dumping most into an uneven pile on the ground. He is sure that buried underneath all of these envelops are his shoes but suddenly he can't find them. School has just ended and while he isn't necessarily in hurry to return home, Shizuo knows that sticking around the school for very long after the last bell rings usually ends up in more fights. (Which in return results in detention, which he always skips.)

But now he cannot find his shoes and it is beginning to get under his skin as he suspects that someone has perhaps taken them. Of course his first thought is to suspect Izaya – that flea that he just barely met a few weeks ago. Since then the letters of challenge have increased to an exorbitant amount. Shizuo suspects that this is no coincidence.

Crumpling a handful of of the envelopes in his hand, Shizuo grits his teeth. His locker has now been thoroughly emptied and his shoes are nowhere in sight. Now he knows that Izaya had to have a hand in this.

"Ah? Shizuo? You're still here?"

His slanted brown eyes glance over at the owner of the voice calling his name. Shizuo's temper simmers down a bit upon noticing Shinra. "Shoes," he says vaguely, as though that single word manages to convey his reason for loitering about at the school entrance.

Yet Shinra seems to understand. He adjusts the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Ahh, someone stole your shoes again." For some reason he sounds almost amused by this. Perhaps it is just Shinra's seemingly endless cheerfulness.

"Izaya," Shizuo growls out.

The boy with the gray eyes, framed behind a pair of spectacles, inclines his head. "Actually, I saw-"

Whatever he is about to say doesn't matter to Shizuo, who promptly interrupts Shinra. "Where is he?" Now he's grinding the envelopes against his fist. The papers are so compact they form a small ball in his hand.

"He was headed to the roof, but Shizuo I think that-"

Shizuo throws the roll of crushed envelopes to the ground and trudges off, briskly brushing by his friend who is still trying get his attention. Nothing else matters though because he can already feel the anger boiling in the pit of his stomach. He can imagine that flea's face. Those mocking reddish brown eyes, that conceited smile that makes one's blood run cold, and the way he lifts his eyebrows in that questioning manner as though he's examining you – scrutinizing and judging you.

It _pisses_ Shizuo off.

So he marches up the flights of stairs leading all the way to the roof of the school building, He passes by several people along the way, some students, some teachers. Only a few have the guts to cast him a questioning glance. Others avoid him as though he has an aura of death about him – which, right now, is probably true. The only thing on his mind is crushing Izaya.

Once he arrivals at the top of the stairwell, he shoves the door open. The hinges screech in resistance and when it slams shut behind him, it seems to be leaning slightly to one side. Shizuo doesn't notice; all he can see ahead of him is Izaya casually speaking with a woman he doesn't recognize. For all he knows, or frankly cares, it could be a classmate, but with all that overloaded makeup on her face, Shizuo thinks he would recognize her easily if she was. Then again his memory isn't so good.

All of this is fairly irrelevant because he spends only a split second glancing at the two conversing figures before he instinctively reaches for the noisily running air conditioner just a short distance away. By the time he manages to lift it, brandishing it threatening over his head as he turns to locate his target, they have already noticed him.

The girl has a look of abject horror on her face. "Oh my God!" she screams in a shrill voice. "Is he going to throw that at us?" She looks panicked and her legs are trembling. It seems like she is frozen with fear.

"Looks like it~" Izaya responds to her cheerily with an infuriating smile on his face. "Shizu-chan is so violent. If you don't want to be crushed you'd better run~"

She hesitantly looks at Izaya and makes a break for the door right as Shizuo chucks the large metal case in their direction. The girl barely dodges in time and somehow Izaya manages to sidestep and avoid it easily. Not that it matters since Shizuo immediately charges toward him afterward, now carrying a solar panel that he also ripped off the roof.

Somehow Izaya manages to evade being maim by his opponent's oversized weapon, ducking out of the way every time Shizuo swings it at him. "Ooh," he exclaims exaggeratedly as though he is impressed. "Are you wanting to play this game again, Shizu-chan? Don't you remember how it ended last time?"

The hospital, Shizuo remembers distinctly, not that he particularly cares. This time he is sure it will be different. "I-zaaa-yaaa!" he bellows as he makes another advance. The chain-link fence surrounding the ledge of the roof is rapidly approaching and in a matter of moments Izaya will be cornered. This will be Shizuo's opportunity.

"How clever, Shizu-chan~ trying to trap me?" The black-haired boy tilts his head back in that cocky manner of his and offers a wry smile.

Shizuo swipes at him with the panel, fully intending to wipe that eerie smirk right off of Izaya's face. Unfortunately it doesn't end quite as planned; Izaya manages to duck and at the same time swings behind Shizuo, landing a direct kick right in the back of Shizuo's knee. This causes him to stumble forward. The panel escapes his grasp and crashes through the chain-link. Shizuo trips over it and the surface is so slippery that he isn't able to get a good footing. He slides right down to the corner and as he struggles to get a grasp on something – anything – to pull himself back up, the panel comes loose from the metal fence and topples right over the ledge of the concrete.

Everything seems a blur that plays in slow motion. Shizuo feels weightless as he plummets through the air. His vision feels a bit hazy as he stares up at the sky, and right as he is approaching the ground, a ground he can't see, he spots Izaya. That cocky bastard is perched on the ledge – the one Shizuo just fell from. Those eyes of his, they seem like they are laughing. Judging by the maniacal smile on his face, he probably _is_ laughing.

While Shizuo braces himself for the sudden impact of the ground, hard and bone-shattering as he images it to be, he is shocked when he hits something that is _definitely_ not a solid surface. Suddenly he feels himself enveloped in water, choking on it as it floods through his nostrils and open mouth. The chlorine stings his eyes as blinks desperately, trying to discern the surface of the pool from the bottom as his arms flail useless. As much as he kicks and struggles, though, it seems like he isn't making any progress.

Once all the strength seems sapped from his arms and legs, hanging uselessly now at his sides as he starts sinking to the bottom, he can see the panel from the roof sinking down toward him. His body jolts at the sight. The image of Izaya rolls through his mind and despite being unable to breathe, he manages to paddle up to the surface. Gasping for breath, he kicks his way to the edge of the pool, choking on the water that burns his throat and his nose.

It takes every ounce of strength that he _doesn't_ have to crawl over the edge. The air feels so cool against his skin and his cheeks are chilled. Shakily, he manages to crawl little more than a foot before collapsing with his face pressed against the wet concrete.

"T-that's him!" an unfamiliar, stuttering voice declares not but a short distance away. "That's the guy we challenged!"

"He must have come for his shoes!"

"Get ready!"

"But didn't he just come from the roof...?"

Shizuo lethargically lifts his chin to identify those that seem to be talking about him. He definitely heard them mention his shoes. "My shoes," he mutters almost incomprehensibly as he spots a squatty upperclassmen holding said objects. The boy seems to be part of a group of third years who are attempting to challenge Shizuo.

For some reason and perhaps it is because his entire body is shivering from the cold, but Shizuo just can't muster the energy to lift himself up and beat these guys to a bloody pulp. As much as he wants to, his body doesn't seem to want to move. So instead he just lays there listening to the clicking of their shoes as they approach.

"Let's beat him up! You remember when he hit us with that stop sign. Let's get him!"

The blonde-haired man, still thoroughly soaked to the bone, is beginning to believe that this simply is not his day. Apparently he was wrong about who stole his shoes, then he failed to crush the flea, and now he is going to be beaten by the very people who pick (and lose) fights with him daily. Luck, it seems, is not on his side.

"Oho~ so you are the ones who stole Shizu-chan's shoes. Were you hoping he would come here to find you? Did you think you could beat him? How amusing..." A shadow falls over Shizuo and the blonde doesn't even have to struggle to look up an identify the culprit; that annoying voice is enough for him to recognize the person as Izaya.

He clenches his hands into tight fists.

"Who are you?"

The voices seem somehow distant and maybe it is because Shizuo finds himself so intently focused on the boy in front of him. All he can really see is Izaya's legs, standing just a few feet in front of him. It's frustrating that the flea is so close and yet Shizuo feels worse now than when his body was hit by a huge truck. He doesn't pause to wonder why, because the only thing Shizuo can really think of is how much he wants to crush the person in front of him. So he reaches out bruised arm – which he isn't even sure where that bruise came from – and grasps hold of Izaya's ankle.

"Not... getting away," he growls out in a determined voice.

"Impressive, Shizu-chan, you're still alive after being smashed into the water and hit by that panel? You really _are_ a monster."

Shizuo's grip tightens.

Simultaneously the group that had originally planned to challenge Shizuo is now charging at Izaya with their fists raised. The black-haired boy tries to yank his leg free from from Shizuo's grasp but to no avail. Though he is slightly disadvantaged because of his restricted movement, he still manages to whip out his flick blade and slice through the front of his opponents uniforms while dodging their blows. His own dexterity saves him, much to Shizuo's chagrin.

"My pants!" Shizuo hears one of them cry out in a panic.

Soon they all seem to be scrambling away while yelling obscenities back at Izaya. It is to their relief that Izaya is unable to retaliate against their words, considering he is firmly rooted into place because of Shizuo's grasp on his leg.

"Not going to let go?" Izaya asks smoothly, as though it doesn't bother him in the least. Perhaps he even sounds a bit amused, humored at the fact that his opponent still cannot let him go even after being thoroughly defeated.

But Shizuo is not one to admit to defeat and he even tells Izaya that, in a raspy voice, "Going to... crush you..."

Seeming to have lost his patience, Izaya slams the sole of his shoe down against Shizuo's hand with his other foot. It grinds the blonde-haired man's bottom knuckle into the concrete and it doesn't take but a moment until the skin is scraped off and a thin stream of blood starts running across the wet pavement. It intermingles with the water and dilutes into a lighter red color that Izaya seems almost fixated on. "Still holding on?" he taunts.

This time, Shizuo doesn't humor him with a response. Then all of a sudden he feels something cold and sharp against his neck. He notices that Izaya is squatting down beside him, holding the blade against his skin.

"That's good," Izaya tells him with a deranged, happy expression. "You'll keep chasing me until your legs give out, until your arms fall off, until your heart stops beating." Then slowly the smile dissipates as he removes the threatening object from Shizuo's neck. But before Shizuo can feel any manner of relief – not that he ever lets his guard down around Izaya – the black-haired boy plunges the blade into Shizuo's forearm. This effectively forces him to relent his grip on Izaya's ankle.

He grunts in pain as he watches the blood spill out of the wound and onto the ground. The pain that shoots through his arm is numbed by the adrenalin coursing through his body. Shizuo looks up at Izaya uneasily, slightly surprised to see that the boy is smiling once more.

"This is why I hate you, Shizu-chan." Then he turns on his heel to leave and pauses only a short distance away to give a backward wave. "Catch me if you can~"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Quick one-shot I wrote up today. Just something to get the idea out of my head, to get my creativity rolling because I'm having horrible writer's block and to experiment with Shizuo x Izaya because I've never written them before (as in together, as a pairing...) Hope you enjoyed if you took the time to read. :)


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